(review based on 1.0 jam release)
he he… tail or… maide……..
big fan of this one. the difficulty is harsh but fair, there’s a lot of variety in strategies thanks to the helpers and their modifiers, and the art and music are an absolute treat.
my biggest issue with the game was the lack of direction you get at the beginning - the fundamentals are clear enough, but the importance of prioritizing buying supplies and batering over manual crafting is really unintuitive. this also snowballs into a bigger problem, since the first two days are perfectly doable with mostly manual crafting and no bartering, but the third day becomes a total brick wall without the extra money. i only managed to get back on my feet for the last day, and only figured out what to do in the first place by reading medal’s older review in the comments here.
(also as people have mentioned i really wish you could see the list of ingredients better so that you know what’s missing or low)
that being said, once i DID figure out how to properly play the game, it was honestly really fun! the ingredient list was a little frustrating at times, but the last couple days (when i had my strategies set up) struck the perfect balance of smooth and hectic. it always felt like i had something to do, but it rarely felt like i didn't have the time to do it. strategizing the upgrades was particularly fun. the story wasn’t a huge focus, but the dialogue was enjoyable and gave me that slightly dreamlike feeling old touhou dialogue always gives me. i honestly don’t know how else to describe the feeling, but i swear it’s good.
overall a great time and a great submission, especially considering nearly everything (except the art) was made by one person!